You've got to want it to win it

Today I started my run with Nikki and Alyssa out on 11th Avenue.  I ran with down down City Creek until they turned down Memory Grove, then I decided to take the trails from City Creek back to Dry Creek :)  That was fun.  Lots of hills at first but it felt better than running on asphalt!  I got off the trail just past the JCC and then took the road above the track and finished back by the locker room with 11.5. When I got to the rock pile that is an East tradition for the trail, I was horrified to see that most of the rocks were gone! :( I died a little bit on the inside. We had a decent sized pile going, but it was reduced to one largish rock and about 4 the size that we always carried up. Might have to run that trail more to rebuild that pile.  Other than my calves burning on the hills, my legs feel great!  Stretched for a while afterwards.

Workout today at the track in the beautiful sunshine!  Too bad they are building just south of the track, we are losing our view of the mountains.  We did the usual warmup and then strides and drills at the track.  The workout for the long distance girls was three 800s at 10k pace with 90 seconds rest, then five 500s at 5k pace with 75 seconds rest, and then four 300s with 3 minute rest.  We got a lap recovery between the sets.  On the 800s I hit 2:40, 2:39, 2:40.  On the 500s the wind really started to pick up and they got really difficult towards the end, but I hit 1:37, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 1:40.  After surviving those I got my 300s done in 50, 51, 53, 52.  Did 2.5 mile cooldown afterwards to finish with 10 for the day.  

Today a group of us started out run in the rain!  From the distance group it was me, Nikki, Becky, and Dana, and we were joined by Rose, Alli, and Ali from sprints :)  That was fun.  But they were only with us to the light at Sunnyside and Foothill, where they turned since their runs are shorter for obvious reasons. Nikki, Becky, and I kept going up Sunnyside, we did zoo loop and ran on Wasatch for a bit.  After Becky turned I was on my own for the rest of the way.  I ran on the paved trail above the freeway, and then turned around and ran on Foothill and turned down 2100s, kind of the same loop I did last week.  I ran down to 1300e and back to campus.  Saw Tim for a massage afterwards.

3.5 miles on the treadmill this morning before weights.

In the afternoon Jessica, Lauren, Bekah, AuraLea, Alyssa, and I caught Trax down to Liberty to do our threshold workout.  We ran to the park for our warmup, and were in the middle of our strides and drills routine when the hail and lightning started.  It was sunny when we started our warmup!  But we know the rules.  The other girls had to go grab their shoes, so I went back to the Trolley Trax station with Lauren and Jessica.  The hail stung as it hit our faces.  We caught the train with 2 minutes to spare, then felt really bad for the other girls when we didn't see them running towards the station when the train was pulling up.  Back at campus, it was no longer snowing.  We ran back to the locker room and then headed back out to go down to the fieldhouse to get a run in.  Then we saw the other girls, Kep had gone to the park and picked them up.  Hanah had been calling him to make sure!  The protocol is that the athletic trainers cannot allow us to return to practice or play until it has been 30 minutes since lightning was last seen.  Down at the fieldhouse I did anther 5.25 miles to finish with 9 for the afternoon.  Our new inside joke is that we are survivors of the SLC 2014 hail storm!

Today I went to Liberty to do the workout that we didn't do yesterday. I warmed up a lap and a half around the perimeter of the park, then I did my strides and drills down the sidewalk in the middle. I did the 25 minute threshold on the pavement, getting just over 4 miles total, average pace 6:06. Then I did four 35 second strides, then a 4 mile cooldown to finish with 12 total.

This morning those of us that were in town met for a long run from campus.  Bekah, AuraLea, Lauren, Becky, Jessica, Alyssa, Dana, and Kenzie were all there.  We started our run down Foothill and then along 2300e to 2100s.  We ran down to 700e and over to Liberty Park where we did as many laps as we needed before catching Trax back up.  Right before getting to 2100s, Bekah and I picked up the pace and didn't see the others except for a brief moment at the park when they turned to go to the train station.  As we got to the Trolley trax station we could see that the train was close, so I did my last half mile on campus to finish with 12 total, 70 for the week.  Average pace 6:53.